If God seems far away, who do you think moved?

   When I was young, I loved to read comic books. Superman, Batman and Robin, Plastic Man, Captain Marvel, and many others fascinated me. The comics were 10 cents each in those days, and I bought as many as I could afford. On the back pages of these comics, advertisements often appeared offering opportunities to sell various things – salve that would cure everything, signs with various sayings on them, magazines, and so forth. I got my parents to bankroll me, and sent off for the signs to sell. I went door to door selling them for 35 cents each, and actually made two or three dollars, as I recall.

My grandmother bought a sign from one of these intrepid entrepreneurs. It was made of heavy cardboard, with a royal blue background, and on it in embossed gold lettering were the words,

“If God seems far away, who do you think moved?”

This sign made an impression on my young mind, and to this day, I can see it in my mind’s eye occupying a prominent position on her living room wall. President Kimball, in his book The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, on page 135, says:

“Should you ever feel distanced from our Father, it could be for many reasons. Whatever the cause, as you continue to plead for help, He will guide you to do that which will restore your confidence that He is near. Pray even when you have no desire to pray. Sometimes, like a child, you may misbehave and feel you cannot approach your Father with a problem. That is when you most need to pray. Never feel you are too unworthy to pray.”

“It matters not our circumstance, be we humble or arrogant, poor or rich, free or enslaved, learned or ignorant, loved or forsaken, we can address Him. We need no appointment. Our supplication can be brief or can occupy all the time needed. It can be an extended expression of love and gratitude or an urgent plea for help. He has created numberless cosmos and populated them with worlds, yet you and I can talk with Him personally, and He will ever answer.”

Brigham Young said:

"The Devil has the mastery of the earth: he has corrupted it, and has corrupted the children of men. He has led them in evil until they are … so far from God that they neither know Him nor his influence, and have almost lost sight of everything that pertains to eternity."

The scriptures are the Word of God, revealed through his prophets and are given to us for our use and understanding. Joseph Smith said,

“I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone to our religion, and a man could get closer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” (Teachings of Joseph Smith, p. 194)

Jesus Christ himself said in John 5:39:Don't despair if God seems far away; he can see you even if you cannot, in your blindness, see him. Elaine Cannon said:

"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me."

"Draw close to God, then, when your life and heart are burdened. Draw close to him, and he has promised to draw close to you."

So if God seems far away and inaccessible to you then you need to move. You can do so through prayer, study of the scriptures and obeying His commandments. The scriptures are the quintessential, authoritative description of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the spirit member of the godhead, the Holy Ghost. They are they which testify of him.

Elder Richard G. Scott, in the Saturday morning session of the April 2007 General Conference, said the following:

“I find that when I get casual in my relationships with divinity and when it seems that no divine ear is listening and no divine voice is speaking, that I am far, far away. If I immerse myself in the scriptures the distance narrows and the spirituality returns. I find myself loving more intensely those whom I must love with all my heart and mind and strength, and loving them more, I find it easier to abide their counsel.”